Rifleman's Hawk American Hickory Handle, One Size

I have a few other Cold Steel tomahawks, they’re OK. Hard to beat for the money but not my favorites. The metal isn’t awesome and the black painted finish is functional but not nice to look at. The Rifleman in particular is heavy and has a longer handle but if you want a camping, bushcraft or re-enacting tool, those are positives. For a thrower you probably want a lighter one. The cutting edge is similar to the CRKT hawks with a slightly flatter curve. The Rifleman isn’t near as nice but it’s almost half the cost if you get it on sale and if you strip the black paint with heat or a chemical like Jasco, it looks decent. There’s a lot of metal in the blade that offers a great opportunity for someone looking to customize. Some creative work with a grinder or simple forging could turn it into a cool custom piece. I left mine stock other than sharpening. These are dull out of the box but that shouldn’t be seen as a negative. You can put any style edge on it you like without having to grind much of a factory edge off. It’s definitely my favorite among the Cold Steel offerings. Again, if you’re after a light weight thrower there are better options. If you want a nicer mass produced hawk, the CRKT Woods Chogan is a big step up without breaking the bank but dollar for dollar the Rifleman is a reliable functional tool. I haven’t torture tested it, and I don’t intend to. I just use my tools and try to take care of them within reason. So far the Rifleman is more than adequate and will continue to get a fair bit of pack time.

Whenever you buy one of these hawks you need to expect to do some work on them. I bought two-the spike hawk and this one. The riflemans hawk was pretty sharp right out of the box. Axe sharp. But the handle was loose and the grain was in the weakest position on both this and the spike hawk-a real shame because hickory is such a tough wood. I ditched both set screws and swapped the heads with the handles and they fit much better. So I saved myself some sanding! I know not every one will be ordering two- and have that sort of luck- so expect that you very well may need to have some sandpaper on hand! Fileing the top edge of the eye helps stop the head from biting into the wood as it seats itself on the handle too. You won't need that set screw then which is good because those do a number on the handle anyway. This seems to be a common characteristic of cold steels (American tomahawk company) tomahawks. All that being said these are minor things when you realize that what you're really buying is the tomahawk head. And that's very good steel at a very good deal. I sharpened the spike hawk sharp enough to cut like a knife which is more edge than a chopper needs. I wanted to see if all the talk was true and it is. Down to the skinny on the riflemans hawk. Its fairly heavy as tomahawks go. If your interest in is as a weapon you will find that its agility takes some muscle but its not so heavy that its impossible. And it would really put a hurting on whatever it hits. If your interest in it is as a tool then its a good choice. Chops like a little axe and the hammer poll drives nice. Tough edge. Wasn't hard to sharpen. I'm very pleased with this product.

I have bought several of Cold Steel's Pipehawks, and I love them, they're great (I just wish Cold Steel would sell a "project grade" version without the cheesy glossy black paint and white stain on the handle). I put off buying the Rifleman's hawk because I don't care for the look of the weird "hammer knob" on the back. My solution was to just chop that off. There's still a good face there for pounding in tent stakes and such. The Rifleman's 'hawk is heavier than the pipe 'hawk, but once you cut off that hammer end, they are pretty close in weight. (and it's cheaper than a Pipehawk). Also, the throat of the 'hawk head (the hole the handle goes through) is wider on the Rifleman's 'hawk than it is on the Pipehawk, so I'm thinking the head may stay solid on the handle better. You do need to custom fit every 'hawk to the handle. Throw the set screw away, I use a bench sander, slowly take away wood, tap the head back on, take a bit more...it sounds complicated but it doesn't take long, just have to be careful not to take off too much wood. These are well made, the price is great, I plan on buying more of them for my family and friends. Cold Steel: offer us a model with no spray paint!! It's a pain to have to strip the paint off every time I buy one of your 'hawks! (Once you strip the paint, soak the bare metal head in a solution of instant coffee, vinegar and salt, you get a nice patina, makes it look "authentic". I also give the handle a dark stain, then heat it up with a heat gun and melt wax into the wood. Makes it "grippy" so even when your hands are sweaty it won't get slippery) These are great for light camp chores, cutting (not really great for splitting but works in a pinch), shelter building, etc. I would not want to chop a full-sized tree with one of these, though. Bigger jobs require an axe or saw.

I've had this for several years and I initially thought of it more like a large hatchet. However, my father took my axe and hasn't returned it. So, when a 9" diameter tree fell on my property, my friend and I went to work with this tool. I wasn't even going to attempt such a feat, but he started on it with one-handed swings and I saw him make his way through in just a few minutes. When it came to the next cut, I took over and used both hands with a full axe grip and chips were flying with every swing. My axe handle is 24" and this one is 22". It was close enough to the length and weight of my axe that I actually found this to cut BETTER than my old wood axe. My axe head is wedge-shaped, like most, but the slim profile of this hawk's head let me cut DEEP with every swing. It never got stuck and the straight handle never slipped from my hands. I have since reacquired my axe, but I honestly haven't touched it since my success with this Rifleman's Hawk. I wish I had taken pictures of our work that day to post here. Standing on a log while swinging away with a huge tomahawk would have been a unique memory to capture. I have since bought other models of Cold Steel like this. The Pipe Hawk has a slimmer handle that is just as long, but I find that 22" is too much handle for a such a light head. I was spoiled by the deep bite of this Rifleman's hawk, I must admit. Some people might say "For the weight of this item, you could carry a real axe" While this might be true, fashioning a replacement handle for an axe would be far more difficult if anything were to happen to this one. Plus, I found this style much more suited to fine work than a thick axe head. This item has sat in my damp garage for years and has only tiny dots of surface-level rust on the hammer head. Every time I use the blade, the edge gets cleaned of any such marks. The black coating on this item prevents the majority of surface area from even being exposed to such risk. The handle and head were tight when I received the item and remain so after 30 big cuts through logs and hundreds of smaller branches. I should also note, that this item is not a toy; wear gloves and eye protection. (especially when making chips fly with both hands). This is not the advertised use for this item, but if it were an axe instead of a hawk, I'd still give it five stars.

Really love my hawks. I ordered 2. One for me and one as a gift to my father for his upcoming birthday. I have already put it to a great deal of tests out in the woods on our property and it holds up great. If you need to do a little bit of wood cutting, it works fine. I did not use the hammer end on any nails but hit a huge branch with it and it makes quite a dent. haha. If you're looking for a hawk to throw, this one is great. Its well balanced and almost always hits with the edged end. Now with that said, when throwing this hawk, you do not need to throw with everything you have. Just a well aimed throw with just enough force will do the trick. If you have any friends that are known jacka$$e$ I wouldnt recommend you letting them throw it. Mine was thrown like a dang fastball into a hard tree and broke the handle on impact. As you would guess I was a bit angry because I had only had it for 3 days and now its broken but I held the handle together and electrical taped the hell out of it and now it works as it did before that fateful moment. I do plan on getting a new handle but not in no hurry as it still works fine with the tape. My only complaint is that when my 2 hawks came in only one was sharpened. The other ones blade is really dull as if they skipped it. But other than that I love my hawk and cant wait to give my dad his for his birthday so we can throw together. Im already thinking about ordering a few more because what the hell the more the better. P.S. it doesnt come with a sheath and cold steels website is on backorder but i found someone on Ebay that makes them custom for these hawks. They are made of top leather and in the good ol' U.S.A. The sellers account name is "walkbyfaith" and my sheath came in today and are freaking sweet. Hope someone finds this somewhat helpfull. PEACE!

First impression wasn't very good. The bit was EXTREMELY dull. I could whack someone with it, and it wouldn't cut them, just leave a line-shaped bruise. Be prepared to do a lot more "work" on this thing, than your typical axe. It's quite literally the dullest "bladed thing" I've ever bought in my lifetime, and that says a lot. It was like they decided to profile it like a tiny splitting maul. hhahaha. The handle is full of grain run-out. Bigtime. I don't expect it to last long. I bought a Cold Steel Trail Boss a few years back (and highly recommend them, for the price), and got a GREAT handle with it (and those are definitely in the inexpensive category, too). If I recall correctly, the trail boss was fairly dull, too, but I was able to fix it up quickly with a file and a puck. so I don't know what's happened with their quality control on handles in the last few years, but caveat emptor. The coating was really uneven and splotchy, and it looks like spots of rust were showing through. Later, under a brighter light, it looked more like maybe the heat treating just left it at a reddish-straw color, which I'm ok with. I'd planned on stripping off the coating and giving it a vinegar patina anyways, so I wasn't too worried about the coating. I still haven't stripped it yet, so I'll update my review if it does turn out to be rust. The hammer poll is canted a little, and not perfectly "up and down" on the "angled" edges. Not a big deal unless you have OCD. I'll just tell people it's hand-forged, hahaha. Why still give it 3 stars? It's only 23 bucks. It's a tomahawk, so making/buying a better handle isn't as much of a pain as a "real" axe. I threw it on the worksharp and made the edge serviceable (it still took about 15-20 minutes on the worksharp using coarse and medium belts, that's how dull and nasty the blade was, though, hahaha). You get what you pay for, and this thing is cheap. I was willing to do a little "work" on it from the get go. I just didn't expect to have to deal with the handle right off the bat, based on my previous experience with Cold Steel axes (maybe I just got really lucky last time, but I'm still very happy with my old Trail Boss, just wanted something smaller and more packable). If you're willing (or wanting) to do a little work on this thing, I'd say the head is still worth $23 for a little project, so I'd still recommend it. If you need something to work straight out of the box, maybe look at something else, instead.

This is an amazing tool. I do a lot of camping and woodcutting work (clearing limbing etc.) and this is one of the first tools I reach for. First off, it's marketed as a tomahawk and it does that very well. Because it was designed as a tomahawk, the handle is straight and smooth and the head is loose. They do have a hex screw to secure it to the handle... sort of. I went ahead and put a real screw in there so it wouldn't be loose at all for use as a tool instead of a toy*. Secondly, this thing is a beast. I can limb a small tree with this faster than I can with a chainsaw (a professional grade husqvarna with a sharp chain). With one hefty, well aimed swing, you can cut through limbs as thick as two inches. It's short and light enough to use as a hatchet yet long enough to use as an axe. I can't say how it would split, since i haven't tried, but I would imagine it would do only okay. The blade is shaped more for felling and limbing rather than for splitting. The handle is a bit slick, but some bank line wrapped around the handle fixed that for me really quick and also gives me some emergency cordage if needed. I imagine this would also fare well in the woods if you were attacked by a bear or mountain lion but fortunately, I have never had to test that out. It doesn't come with a sheath, but cold steel sells good ones for cheap. Overall, if you want a good tomahawk: buy this. If you want a great hatchet: buy this. If you want a good "scout style" axe: buy this. *Let's be honest, most of the combat ready items for cold steel are never going to be used in actual combat since we don't use swords for fighting anymore unless you're Jack Churchill (look him up). Doesn't mean they couldn't be; they aren't joking when they say battle ready. Also doesn't mean I wouldn't love to have half of what they sell. But let's stop lying to ourselves; if we buy a sword or something of that ilk, it's a toy.

Really , it is BIG , it is closer to an Ax than a Tomahawk , the hefty blade has more than enough weight to cut through wood with ease , the advantage of using this instead of an axe is the ease to replace the handle in case it breaks , and handles do break ( specially when you lend your beautiful Gransfords Brucks axe to a guy who doesn't know what the heck he is doing and overstrikes the log snapping the handle on the very first swing on the first day of the trip leaving you axeless in the middle of nowhere ) replacing handles on a Tomahawk is a breeze and even improvising them on the field takes just a few minutes as long as you have a friction fit on your hawk : Remove the Allen screw that comes with the Hawk , throw it away , slide the handle out , use a round file to deburr the inside of the eye , slide the handle back in , flip the hawk upside down and tap the handle against something firm while holding the head , done , if the handle starts to get lose just tap it into place again , works like a charm !

Awesome tool for bushcraft hunting or just camping with the family. I love my tomahawk and have nothing negative to say about it. Just need to find a sheath to carry it when I’m hiking in the Forrest

Ich habe das Riflemans's Hawk nun 3 Monate zum Abbruch und zerteilen von Möbeln als auch zum hacken von Feuerholz benutzt und das Preis/Leistungsverhältnis ist super. Zwar habe ich das Tomahawk noch einmal für eine feine Schneide abziehen müssen, doch nun macht das arbeiten richtig Spaß. Ein kleiner Wermutstropfen ist die Passgenauigkeit des Kopfes auf dem Stiel. Doch dies lässt sich mit etwas Schleifpapier in 8 min regeln.

Perfecto

Nice weight, good momentum on a swing. No problems splitting wood for kindling. The handle is a bit slippery though, solved this by wrapping it with leather and lacing it with paracord. I am now pretty confident that I can swing this with all my might and not let it go. I don't , and have never tried to throw these things. I would rather keep it close:)

Cooles Teil! Qualität ist super und ich benutze es als Allroundwerkzeug beim Hiken Aber zum Holzhacken nicht unbedingt geeignet: Durch die sulzt an der Aufnahme Gruff/Eisen kann man das holz nicht vernünftig durchschlagen.